Barbie. The Icon Celebration

A picture book that tells the story and transformations of one of the most influential pop icons in history.

In the year of her sixty-fifth birthday (2024), Barbie Millicent Roberts, simply Barbie to everyone, continues to be a true trendsetter and an inspirational muse for young and old alike, a kaleidoscopic creature, true to her nature as a fashion icon but increasingly inclusive, attentive to social and global issues, consistent with her historic and evergreen motto: “You can be anything.” In the Hollywood movie Barbie of 2023, directed by Greta Gerwig, she first appeared in the flesh in the guise of Margot Robbie, a true contemporary transposition of the original Teen Age Fashion Doll unveiled at the New York Toy Fair on March 9, 1959: inspired by the sophisticated aesthetic of 1950s stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Sandra Dee.

The book recounts, through five sections and a very up-to-date timeline (1959-2024), all the changes of Barbie who, in addition to her style, has been able to best interpret the transformations that contemporary Western society has produced, at least in the last sixty years. Thus, in this volume, Barbie becomes a fascinating tool through which to reread many of the social and aesthetic phenomena that took place in the second half of the 20th century and in this beginning of the 21st century, including history, fashion, society, art, lifestyle, world cultures, and much more.

AUTHOR
MASSIMILIANOCAPELLA – An art and fashion historian, author, curator and museum director, he takes a special interest in the relationship between the visual arts and fashion, creating unprecedented events that juxtapose clothes and costumes with works of art.